


Entwined Souls

by AlmaArachnidFriendEmpress



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, Family Bonding, Gay Parents, Hogwarts Era, Lgbtq Household, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26652961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmaArachnidFriendEmpress/pseuds/AlmaArachnidFriendEmpress
Summary: When a fragment of a darkest soul takes refuge in the body of an innocent baby, life is not one lived unscathed - nor unaffected. 11 year old Sadie Potter has lived her whole life knowing this as truth. Now, the time comes for the rest of the world around her to know the same. But will she find help, acceptance and comfort from those around her, or adversity and hate born of fear?





	1. Chapter 0: Prologue

"I know this is all a lot to take in, Sadie, but yer _are_ a witch. Now how 'bout yah read tha' letter of yers, eh? Bout time yeh did, I reckon. Whaddya say?"

"She doesn't _say_ anything!" Petunia shrilled. "That- that _freak_ hasn't said a word since the day we took her in! She never even cried as a baby! And her eyes...when she's not wearing that ridiculous thing on her face...trying to _hide_ her freakishness..."

Sadie looked between her relatives and the giant man. Hagrid. A wizard. And she was a witch? She felt joy. Wonder. She opened her Hogwarts envelope with a smile, and she silently read the letter over. A list of supplies. Pets? A wand? A reply due by August 30th? She was to go to Platform 9 3/4 on September 1st?

A strange feeling of familiarity coursed through her. Deja Vu. Like she had read this before. Experienced this situation before.

Sadie shook her head, brushed her hair behind her ear. She smiled up at Hagrid, held the letter tight to her chest.

* * *

"Sadie, did they hurt yeh ever?"

Hagrid's question as they were on the boat the next morning shocked her.

Sadie startled, looked at him. She hesitated. Looked at the ocean. Nodded.

"Alrigh'." Hagrid sighed heavily. "Dumbledore was hopin' you'd answer that different, but...guess it's not a surprise, the kind o' muggles they are. M' sorry, Sadie. Whatever they did to yeh over the years, M' sorry. Dumbledore's gonna fix tha' for yeh, though. Great man, Dumbledore. We'll talk to ter Ministry, get them muggles the full punishment o' the law. An' get yer into a nice home. A safe home. I promise yeh, yer won't get hurt ever again, Sadie."

Sadie, of course, was silent. She stared out at the ocean harder. Reached up to wipe her eye of blurry vision. Readjust her eyepatch.

"They do that to you?" Hagrid indicated her eyepatch, looking angry and upset.

Sadie shook her head. How could she explain this? Maybe just...show it? Hesitantly, she reached up and pulled her eyepatch aside to reveal the eye beneath. The glittering, ruby eye.

Hagrid reared back, almost fell off the boat. He stared at her with a scared expression. Then he calmed. "Dumbledore said yeh might've...might've developed some side effects from the...that night. Bein' touched by the darkest of magics, an' living like you did, course nobody coulda expected yeh to come outta it without any problems. Like tha' scar of yers, too. It's famous in our world. Yer eye though...prolly be best to keep hidin' it, M' sorry. It's a mark o' a dark mage - a show of dark magic corruption. Least, when it's done deliberately. _You_ just have it from an accident, I know that! It ain't yer fault at all! It was...You Know Who's fault for...directin' so dark o' magic at an innocent little baby. And for yer parents, too, it's all HIS fault...bless them..."

Sadie pulled her eyepatch back into place - and in doing so, she locked away all thoughts and feelings on this incredible information about her past, her disfigurements, and even her parents (they hadn't really died in a car crash, but had been murdered?). She sighed, leaned over the side of the boat and dipped a hand into the cold water of ocean. She swirled it around, made a few splashes.

Mused on her eye, and its impossible shade; so it seemed she was a freak even among freaks.

There was a small, strange part of her that wasn't exactly unhappy about this; in fact, it was downright preening about it.

Sadie's lips tugged at the corners for a brief moment before letting down again.


	2. Into A Whole New World

Those first steps into Diagon Alley were the most wonderful, exciting steps of Sadie's life.

But not as exciting as they could have been (or perhaps, should have been); the preceding time spent in the Leaky Cauldron had been simultaneously nerve-wracking, and strangely pleasing (nobody had _ever_ payed attention to her before like that, and never so many people!). She'd met one of her Professors, who'd be teaching her Defense Against The Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

Sadie's head turned left and right, taking in all the wonderful shops, the vibrant colors, the robes, cloaks, all the tunics and pants and skirts and dresses! Some of these outfits were even magical; swirling flames of green with every motion of a witch's dress hem, a sparkle of blue particles off a skirt when a boy her age hopped up and down in front of a shop display holding a sleek broomstick (a Nimbus 2000, Sadie thought she heard a girl squeal excitedly).

Two wizards and a young boy came out of a shop on Sadie's left. One man was holding the boy's hand, while the other was carrying a large cage with a hooting owl in it. Sadie watched the wizards trade smiles and kisses as they walked the boy past Sadie - bound for the Leaky Cauldron, she assumed.

Sadie found herself grinning widely. This place was so unlike the shouted, perfect, _muggle_ variation of normal that her aunt and uncle were always trying to smack into her, that it just made her so _giddy_ inside! It was wonderful, it was amazing, it was more than she could've imagined. It was _magical_. It was everything her relatives _hated_! And Sadie loved it all the more just for that, wanted to embrace it all for that - for spite's sake! If she could have risked it, dragged them here somehow, she would have liked to see her relatives' reactions to this place! Their faces would have just been...

Well, more than just to spite her relatives, Sadie wanted to embrace this world because it was _her parents' world_ \- and _hers_ , too. This world was...the world Sadie _should have had from the start_ , if it hadn't been for her relatives.

They'd denied her this place, all of this wonderful, amazing - all these wonderful, amazing _people_...

Her true home and true _culture_!

But Sadie was here now, and she wasn't going to miss a second of it!

Sadie stifled a giggle and swung her arm - and tried to swing Hagrid's with her.

"Alrigh' now, calm down Sadie - can't have yeh runnin' off, now can we?" Hagrid said, amused. "Dumbledore'd have my hide for that!" He hesitated. "And yer parents would've, too."

Sadie immediately stilled her arm, forcing herself to get back into step with Hagrid.

But her grin remained.

Even as they went into Gringotts - being taken down an amazingly fun cart ride, and to Sadie's vault, by a goblin woman named Farrak - and even after, when Hagrid took her to Madam Malkin's for her choice of Hogwarts outfit - she chose the tunic and pants variant, with nice shoes to go with. Even after that, when they'd spent some time in a bookshop, getting all kinds of schoolbooks on the list. And after, in the potions shop (for it was here that Hagrid said, beaming, "Yeh know, yer mum was a real hand at potions - best in her class! 'Cept for Snape, o' course. The two o' them were best friends, real close through their Hogwarts years...").

Sadie's grin finally evaporated when she went into the pet shop, and began to look around for one. She'd never had a pet before - never been allowed, and never would have dared _try_ (she was sure her relatives would have just killed it). But now...now she was here, in this wonderful place, promised never to have to see her aunt and uncle or her cousin again! And even promised to get a _new_ home, a _new_ family! Sadie trusted Hagrid, she liked him, and so she thought, with his encouragement...that she might be allowed to have a pet at her _new_ home. Surely, at Hogwarts, at least...

Sadie walked between magical canines with bushy tails that changed colors, magical felines that shrunk and grew to the size of horses (and their cages grew to accommodate them), and a variety of rats, mice, and owls and birds.

She found herself in an aisle filled with enclosures, neat and ordered, that all held different kinds of snakes.

Some had wings, others had scales that shifted colors, or turned them totally invisible, while others would just pop in and out of existence. Sadie even saw an orange and red one in a container full of flames that had fangs dripping with what looked like lava! There was a huge warning label on _that one_ , saying that it was highly dangerous, from the depths of volcanoes, and that you had to have some kind of serious permit to even own one - and the one in the shop was just for education and display purposes for young mages. You couldn't even _buy_ this one. Not from right here.

Sadie moved on after watching it coil up on an orange glowing plate of metal.

She passed a snake with six heads and six tails, passed another one that scared her by spitting a stream of black goo at the glass.

Slowly, Sadie found herself having wandered back to the front.

"Yeh decided on a pet?" Hagrid asked, smiling.

Sadie bit her lip. Shook her head.

"Well, how about this, Sadie! Why don't we take yeh ter get that wand of yours - and I'll come back here and get a pet for you while you're doin' that. Call it a birthday present! I'll get yeh an owl, is what I'll do; they're dead useful - can carry yer mail and everything. So how 'bout it?"

Sadie smiled, nodded. Then, she hugged him.

Hagrid patted her head a bit, awkward but happy, till she'd drawn away again. "Right, then. That's what we'll do for you! Now, on to Olivander's with yeh! Getting a wand is special - once in a lifetime. I'm honored ter get to be the one to take yeh to do this, Sadie..."

Sadie was happy about it, too - she just wished her parents could have been here for this once-in-a-lifetime event in her life. But, she told herself, it being someone who knew them was as good as she was going to get. The best she could get.

And she'd be glad for that.

So glad.

* * *

Entering Ollivander's shop was...an experience in itself.

The sounds from the alley seemed to fade almost entirely, as soon as the door shut.

And the air, there was something...it tingled, it made Sadie feel so...

She focused on the old man who had come to greet her from the back of the shop.

Big, curious eyes, a small smile on his face. "Ahhh, Sadie Potter! I'd wondered when I'd be seeing you in my shop. Here for your wand, naturally, at last..."

It wasn't exactly a question, but Sadie still gave a nod - and tried to smile back.

Ollivander began to bustle about her, flourishing and tapping his wand, taking measurements and asking her to hold her arm out ("Which arm is your wand arm...? Which do you _write with_ , then? Left? No, right then? Right!"). As he worked, he told her about her parent's wands. And then...

"And that's where..." Ollivander's eyes were rapt to her scar. "And your dear, poor parents, too! I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it. Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful, very powerful. And in the wrong hands...well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..." Ollivander reached up with a hand, and pressed a long finger to her scar.

Sadie flinched and drew back, her arm coming up with a definitive SMACK, knocking the stunned shopkeep's hand away.

Ollivander sort of startled, staring down at her. Then his expression changed. "My apologies, my dear girl - I quite forgot myself. Now then..."

The man hurried off into the back again, rifling through the shelves and ceiling-high stacks of neat, narrow wand cases.

He came back to her quickly with a thick black one, putting it in her hand and watching her almost expectantly.

Sadie gave it a bit of a wave, feeling stupid; Ollivander hastily took it back, but spared her a reassuring look and a word of, "Not to worry, it doesn't often happen on the first try - wand matching..."

After Sadie had gone through two dozen wands, she started feeling downright hopeless with herself. Was this a mistake? Was she not even a witch at all? What would Hagrid think, what would her parents have thought?

And then Ollivander came to her with yet another wand, and a strange glint to his eyes. He delicately put it in her hand, watching her intently.

The moment it touched her fingers, the wand erupted with golden sparks, and a warmth flooded up through her entire arm; she let it clatter to the floor from pure shock!

Sadie's face was heated as she hastily stooped to retrieve it, but Ollivander didn't seem to mind. The man was actually acting really _ecstatic_ over the whole thing ("Oh, very well done, yes!").

Sadie wiped the wand off on her shirt and clutched it to her chest as she fished into her bag for some magical money. She had just counted out the galleons and offered them to Ollivander when she realized he was just...sort of staring at her.

_If he's going to try and touch me again..._

Sadie stood resolute, narrowing her eyes into a questioning but steady _glare_.

Ollivander responded to the questioning part, at least. "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Miss Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious that you should be destined for this wand, when its brother...why, its brother gave you that scar."

Sadie flinched, her scar pulsing with acute agony, as the world flashed with green light. But, after a mere second passed, the light was gone, and her scar was hardly tingling. She was used to it after nightmares, but this was the first time it had ever happened when she was wide awake.

The old man seemed not to have even noticed - he was lost in his thoughts. Murmuring to himself more than her. "I think we must expect great things from you, Miss Potter. After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."

Sadie filed that information about her wand away carefully, payed the seven galleons for her wand, and left as the man bowed to her.

She really didn't think she liked him.

* * *

After Sadie had everything for school in a trunk (a magical trunk, which weighed almost nothing!), and her snowy white owl in a cage, Hagrid sat with her in the Leaky Cauldron and bought them a meal.

Sadie ate it gratefully; though her relatives rarely had hit her, the one thing they'd consistently liked to do to punish her was not feed her. That, and locking her in her cupboard for hours - sometimes even days - at a time.

She finished the meal and put her hands in her lap, looking to Hagrid.

He read her expression pretty easily. "Righ', now that we've got yeh yer stuff, we'll be gettin' yeh over ter St. Mungo's. The best mage hospital in the country."

Sadie stared more intensely.

Hagrid frowned. Then his eyes lit up with realization. "Ah, it isn't that there's somethin' wrong with yeh! Nothin' like that, Sadie!" he said quickly, loudly. Several tables looked at them; he flushed and quieted. "It's just tha', yeh know, with yeh not going back to yer relatives...an' how we're gonna get yeh a new home and all...it's gonna take some time, and yeh need a place to stay in the time between. St. Mungo's is happy ter let in need mages have a bed for a couple o' weeks - till you get back on your feet an' whatnot. They're great like that! An' they'd not turn away a kid like you. No way."

Hagrid smiled at her broadly. "So you'll be gettin' a nice, soft bed there, a whole room ter yourself, Sadie! At least until we can get things...sorted out for yeh. It shouldn't take that long! An' I'll be in ter visit every day, an' I'm sure Dumbledore will too. He's real eager ter meet yeh, he is. The Headmaster taught yer parents at Hogwarts - taught me, too. In fact, they...they fought together against You-Know-Who, years an' years ago, during the war."

Sadie startled. _A war?_ There'd been an outright _war_? She had thought, from what Hagrid and Ollivander told her, that it had been some single, lone terrorist type of man who had attacked her and killed her parents - a nutjob of a wizard! But there had been a _war_ going on? Against him? And her parents had fought in that war? She would really have to get into those history books she had bought soon!

Hagrid looked at her with a bit of panic, and a lot of doubt now. "M'sorry! I should not have said that. Yeh don't need that sad stuff ruinin' yer nice day here."

Sadie just sighed, putting her arms on the table, and then lay her head down on them.

"I guess it's too late for tha'," Hagrid sighed, too, as if he'd read her thoughts. "I'm sorry, really, Sadie."

Sadie huffed.

"I s'pose those muggles never told yeh anything true, did they? It's been all over yer face, all day - an' just now in particular. Yeh really don't know anything, do you?"

Sadie shook her head, not even lifting it off the table.

"Well, maybe, for now, that's for the best. Yeh shouldn't have to worry about all tha', have all that bad history in yer head."

Sadie shrugged; she wasn't sure she agreed on that. But she couldn't exactly demand more information - and she wouldn't want to press Hagrid like that anyways.

He was nice.


	3. St. Mungo's, Of Old Wizards And Parents

"The good thing 'bout you being you, Sadie, is that everyone will want to do this pretty quick. An' easy, too - for yer sake."

Sadie sat down on the small, clean, very blue bed in the modest room. It didn't even look like what she'd seen of hospitals before - it looked like a _real_ bedroom for a girl like her.

There was a desk and chair, a nice big window, there was a little dresser, and there was a bookshelf with a bunch of books already on it.

When Sadie had been shown in by a mage doctor ("Healer", the word was), the wizard had asked her just what color she wanted her room to be. She had pointed to a blue book on the shelf, and then he'd given his wand a flourish, and then everything had turned blue!

The walls, the soft carpet, and the bed, of course.

It was one of the nicest things anybody had _ever_ done for her.

Sadie couldn't help but cry a bit. She was _still_ crying, even after the Healer had left.

Hagrid sat beside her on the bed and sort of put his arm around her.

Sadie let him. Sniffled and wiped at her eyes as best she could.

Hagrid took his arm back after a minute, scooted away from her some. He cleared his throat and looked at her. "Ahem - Sadie...Professor Dumbledore will be here in a minute or two now. Along with some Aurors; they'll be the ones ter ask yeh a bit about yer relatives - so we can get them punished for how they've treated yeh. Do yer want them to be?"

Sadie nodded viciously. That, she wanted more than most things in this world - for the treatment to stop, for her to be taken away from them, and for _them_ to get punished for it as badly as they'd always punished _her_! Now that it was finally going to happen, she would do _ANYTHING_ anyone wanted to see it done!

"Alrigh'. Tha's good. Good, Sadie. I'm real proud of yeh, yeh know. Yer a brave, strong girl. Jus' like yer parents. They'd have been real...real proud of yeh for this, lot more than me."

Sadie glowed at the praise.

It really was only a short time before new mages arrived.

First to enter the room was a tall, old man wearing colorful, purple and blue robes and a pointed wizard's hat. He had a long white beard, half-moon spectacles, and eyes a piercing blue. Kind but confident. And...troubled. He stopped and looked at Sadie, looking her over. Then he just looked sad. Really upset.

Behind him came two mages in blue robes with intricate patterns, a symbol on the chests, and pockets and belts on them. Pouches, too. One of these blue robed mages was an older man with plenty of scars and disfigurements, and a keen look in his eyes. The other was a young woman with black hair drawn back in a tight ponytail.

"Hello, Sadie," spoke Dumbledore, quiet and kind as his appearance.

Sadie looked at him.

"Ah, yes, Hagrid appraised me in his letter of your inability to speak." Dumbledore's tone was light, casual. "But fear not: there are magical ways aplenty to accommodate that in a mage's life - and education. But by far the simplest of ways is writing. If you'd feel comfortable communicating with me in such a way - and the Aurors, of course?"

Sadie just nodded. Her relatives preferred her to never try to communicate - had only gotten her an old pen and a little journal at the school's insistence that they needed a way to talk to her about issues. They'd take away both from her when they wanted to punish her...which was often.

Dumbledore flourished a hand, and suddenly he held a blue little diary in his hand. There was also a writing quill. He offered both to her, an assuring look on his face. "Both of these are personally enchanted by myself, Sadie; the diary will never run out of pages, cannot be torn or damaged in most magical or nonmagical ways, and you'll find that the quill will never run out of ink, and will instantly dry itself on the pages."

Sadie took the dairy and quill, inspecting them. There was a little sleeve on the spine of the diary - for the quill. She looked up at Dumbledore, smiling and trying to convey all her gratitude with just...just that.

She flipped the diary to the first page, grasping the quill awkwardly, and set the tip to paper. She scribbled experimentally, then set about actually writing a first, quick note.

Sadie was preparing to turn the diary upside down and hand it over to Dumbledore, when the most incredible thing happened: sharp, glowing blue lettering appeared to hover in the air before her - facing Dumbledore. She was seeing them backwards.

"You're welcome, my dear," Dumbledore said, with a tip of his hat to her. "You see? The words you write will appear before those you wish to direct them toward, and after a few moments..." He gestured needlessly to the letters as they faded away. "If they went away too quickly for one to read them, you may always tap the words on the page with your wand, and they'll reappear for you. Give it a try, Sadie...?"

Sadie nodded, taking out her wand from her pocket and tapping it to the page: the words reappeared, held before fading, exactly as he'd said!

"Brilliant as ever, Albus," spoke the mangled Auror, with traces of approval on his face. "Almost as brilliant as the work you did on my eye - and this leg."

"I do my best for our differently abled mages, Alastor," Dumbledore replied with a beaming smile. He looked at Sadie again. "Now then, Sadie, these are Aurors Moody and Brand. If you're ready to speak with them, they'd like to ask a few questions about your life so far. It is perfectly fine if you'd rather not speak of such things just yet; we can always wait until tomorrow."

Sadie looked at the pretty Auror woman - Brand - and then she looked to Moody. Standing there all strong, powerful, leaned against the wall. One of his eyes fixed on her, looking her in the face. She pressed her lips together and nodded firmly. She took her diary and scribbled out hastily - unnecessarily: **I'll do it now.**

Auror Moody gave an approving grunt, and half his mangled lips tugged into something like a smile for a moment.

"Then I'll let them take it from here," Dumbledore nodded to Sadie. He hesitated, throwing a look at the Aurors. "You're aware of the dark magical damages she sustained as a baby..."

"Perfectly - don't worry about that," Moody said shortly. "Word of it won't leave this room - unless the girl wants it to."

"We understand it's a very sensitive issue," Auror Brand said quietly. "We aren't strangers to the worst of dark magic's effects on people."

"Excellent. Hagrid, come along. Best to give Sadie her privacy."

Hagrid gave Sadie a quick pat on the arm and stood, following Dumbledore out of the room.

Sadie drew a breath and let it go again, and did her best to look the Aurors in the eyes as they asked their first question.

It really was fast, like Hagrid had promised her - this whole adoption business!

* * *

After just a week, Dumbledore came back to her in St. Mungo's and sat her down at the desk to talk.

"Sadie, the Ministry of Magic has settled on a very good, very kind family that appealed for your adoption. They're waiting just outside - to meet you. And, if you feel ready...to take you to your new home, to your new family with them. But they perfectly understand if you'd like another day or two to just keep talking with them, getting to know them here before making the move."

Sadie looked down at her diary for more reasons than one. She bit her lip, and she wrote. **I'd like to meet them now. And I want to go with them now.**

Dumbledore eyed her a long moment. "Sadie, you should know beforehand that your new family includes a sister. Her name is Daphne. She's a wonderful girl - I met with her personally just the other day. She's very excited to have you as a new sister."

Sadie's breath caught. She kept looking into her lap.

"Well..." Dumbledore stood, nodding to her. He touched her arm, strode for the door. "I shall send your parents in."

Sadie breathed. She ran a hand through her hair, then shoved her fists into her lap. She had always, always dreamed of someone just coming and taking her away from the Dursleys - a good, nice, kind, wonderful new, _real_ family. Now it was happening, and she...she didn't want to mess it up. What if they didn't like her, changed their minds about taking her in? What if they got sick of her _later_ , and kicked her out? She wasn't the perfect girl, after all! She had a scar, a dark, corrupted eye, and she couldn't even speak! What if she was too much of a burden, too much trouble? What if she wasn't good, smart, or pretty enough for them? What if her _sister_ hated her, their _real_ daughter, and what if she screamed and told them to get rid of her, and they listened because of course they would (her aunt and uncle had _always_ listened to Dudley over _her_!), and what if-

The door opened.

Sadie jumped, then had to try steadying her breathing all over again. She put her hands flat on the desk. Then she snatched up her quill and poised it on the dairy's page - she had to look smart, alert, _proper_! Ready! If they thought she was stupid, or lazy, or-

"Hello there, Sadie."

Two wizards entered her room. One wore green and black robes, with emerald earrings glistening prominent in the window's sun rays. He had long shaggy hair and a plain face, all in all. The other was clad in a purple top, with a matching purple skirt, and purple striped leggings disappearing down into purple heeled shoes. He had a full setup of makeup - lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, and very long eyelashes. When he waved at Sadie in greeting, she spotted purple nail polish on his fingernails. His hair was short and scraggly, and dyed purple to match his outfit.

They smiled at her, these wizards.

"Is it okay if we sit here, Sadie?" asked the long haired one, gesturing at her bed.

Sadie gave them a nod, turning her chair hastily in their direction. She took her diary off the desk and dropped it into her lap. Propped it open and took up her quill.

"Thank you."

They sat like this a while, just looking at each other. Looking each other over.

Sadie obviously wasn't going to be the one to break the silence. She didn't want to be.

"Sadie, my name is Marcus Greengrass - and this is my husband, Henry," the long haired wizard spoke again. Soft, gentle. A pause. "Have Professor Dumbledore and the Aurors- they've told you all about why we're here?"

She nodded.

"Okay. Then you know that we're going to be your family from now on. That you'll be living with us. That we'll be taking care of you, raising you, loving you - making sure you eat good, sleep good, and have everything you need in life. And just things you might want, too. That we're going to be your parents, in every way. And you'll be our daughter, in every way. Real and true."

Sadie nodded again - a bit more enthusiastic.

"Okay." A breath. "Sadie, our family - it also includes a sister. They told you that as well?"

Sadie gave a...less enthusiastic nod.

It was noted.

"Sadie...honey...we know about how your cousin treated you before. And we want you to know that- that is _never_ going to be how your sister will treat you. If she ever does, we will punish her for it. We know it's going to take time to adjust, for her as much as you - for all of us - but while we'll allow for that, we're _never_ going to tolerate fighting, or hitting, or name-calling. Not from her to you, and not from you to her, either. Okay, Sadie?"

Sadie nodded, lips frowning.

"She's very excited to meet you, Sadie. She really is! We...years ago, we had a tragedy in the family. Daphne had a little sister, who- who died when Daphne was four. Astoria, her name was; she was two years old when she passed away." Marcus's eyes were shimmering. He wiped at them. "Ever since then, Daphne's been an only child. But, when we talked to her about this - making you a part of our family, a sister with her - she _loved it_. She wants to love _you_ , Sadie. She wants to be a good, kind sister to you. She wants to make you feel happy, and safe, and comfortable - just like we do. I promise you that. And I hope that you two will get along, with time and space to get to know one another. We've already asked her to do her best to try for you, and now we have to ask you to do your best to try, too. Can you try for us, Sadie?"

Sadie finally looked up. Looked into those patient, kind faces of theirs. Those hopeful faces. She found herself nodding once more, firmly. She would try, for them - and for herself.

"Right, well. Now that we've covered that...Sadie, you know that we don't have to do this right away if you don't want us to?"

A nod.

The other wizard, Henry, spoke for first time, gazing with gentle eyes of dark blue. "Dumbledore told us you said you were ready - that you wanted to just- do this. But we want to be extra sure. We don't want to do anything that would make you uncomfortable, or upset. We know this is going to be a huge change, and that huge change can be scary. We don't want to scare you, Sadie."

She considered the two a minute more. She glanced down and began to write.

**I don't want to be here any more. But I don't want to go back to the Dursleys again either. I want to go with you now. Hagrid and Dumbledore both said you're really nice, and that you'll be a good family for me. I like them, so if they like you, then I guess I like you too.**

Marcus nodded at her. He smiled. "Alright. If that's what you really want, of course we can take you home now. Unless you didn't mean _now now_..."

Sadie cracked a smile, ducking her head. She hastily wrote again. **I meant now, now.**

"You're really sure?" asked Henry gently. Caring.

Sadie nodded to her diary.

"Okay." The two wizards stood.

Sadie stood too. She grabbed her trunk, then reached for her owl in her cage - who she'd named Hedwig. She clutched her diary to her chest.

"Sadie, how about we take those for you?" spoke Henry lightly, coming over to her and reaching out for her trunk.

Sadie hesitated. These were all her things - _her things_ \- expensive and wonderful, and magical. And she hadn't ever _had_ good things like this before. But she had them now. But...she couldn't look like some selfish, ungrateful, stupid- She passed her trunk off to Henry, and then watched as Marcus lovingly picked up Hedwig's cage and cooed at her. Sadie felt a little better about it. Just a twinge.

They were _good_ , they were _kind_.

They had to be.


	4. Sisterly Meetings

Sadie was more nervous than ever as they appeared in the field before the house. Not even the complete thrill of teleporting (what they'd called "apparition") was enough to do away with it.

Rolling hills of lush grass, a forest's edge off to the right. A little, pristine pond on the left side of the house, right near it.

The house was wide and flat, but it was colorful. There were ripples going across its exterior, like waves in water, in blues and purples and greens.

It was wonderful, magical, and...

And Sadie couldn't even be a good enough girl to speak and tell them just how great it was.

But she followed after the pair of wizards - her new parents, her new family - all the same, trying to put a big smile on her face that she didn't entirely feel.

Her aunt and uncle had told her so many times that she was so ungrateful, that she shouldn't be - and so Sadie had to try to not seem that way with her new family now, lest they decide to throw her out for it!

Sadie stepped inside and found a wide open sitting room. It was all whites and creamy colors, nice and neat, with leather furniture and a nice big fireplace. The windows were long and high, thin slits that let sun and warmth in through.

"Sadie, honey, would you like to look around, or see your room first?" Marcus spoke. He was running a hand through his hair, eyeing her with a bit of nervousness himself!

That made her feel a bit better. She opened up her diary and sloppily replied - what if they got annoyed with how slow she was to talk to?! Room first, please!

"Okay. Come on."

Sadie obeyed, following them into a narrow hallway.

It came to a "T" section, a way forward, and a way to the right. Her parents took her around the right, down the long portion.

They stopped in front of a door on the right side of the hall - there were two. Two on the left, as well.

Marcus gave a smile to Sadie, a quick look to Henry, and opened the door.

It was a big, square room - all nice and neat, whites and creamy colors, like the sitting room. Nice carpet, two pristine beds, two dressers and two nightstands - an open closet door where Sadie spied a lot of different outfits hanging that looked like they were for a girl her own age. For the daughter, obviously - the real one, not Sadie.

And the daughter...

"Daphne." Marcus's gentle, light tones floated to reach the righthand bed. The girl laying in it, flat on her back, nice white blankets up to her neck. The blankets were pulsing faintly, turning black briefly. This was accompanied by a faint whirring noise. A sort of, wuv-wuv-wuv-wuv-wuv. "Sadie is here. Are you feeling up to talking with her today?"

Sadie eyed the girl with sheer anxiety, hands wringing and tightening around her diary, clutching it to her chest.

The girl lifted a pale, thin arm and ran a hand over a shaved head. She looked at Sadie with big, blue, happy eyes. She smiled. "A bit - I really want to, you know that! But..." She let out a huff, and her arm fell to rest across her stomach. Sadie saw her fingers twitching strangely.

"Okay. Well, hon, Sadie's likely been pretty overwhelmed and nervous today, so it's probably best that you don't try to talk too much with her. She needs to get used to being here at all."

"Sure." Daphne's voice carried, but it had a little rasp to it at the end. She sucked in a breath and gave Sadie another smile. "I know you don't talk with your voice, but you do have a Speaker's Notebook, so I think we'll be fine there."

Sadie could only nod, and try to smile back. Was this real daughter, this girl from this family, was she really so happy and glad to see Sadie? Really? Or was it just a nice fake face for her parents? She saw the Dursleys do it often enough - every single time they had to go in public with her! If this girl really did hate her, she was just doing a really good job to fool her parents. Right?

"Okay..." Marcus said slowly, almost hesitant. "Well then, Sadie..." He drew his wand and gave it a flick; Hedwig's cage drifted to settle gently on the dresser next to the left bed.

Henry set her trunk down at the foot of it.

"We'll be getting dinner ready," Henry told them. "Sadie, if you need anything, just ask Daphne. Or, come find me or Marcus, if you'd be more comfortable asking us."

Sadie nodded to the adults and moved for the bed. She sat on the side, facing her new sister's bed. She carefully set her diary down on the nightstand and then straightened, hands in her lap.

"Be good, sweeties," Marcus said in parting, and the two wizards left the girls alone.

The door closed with a soft little snap.

Sadie looked all around the room before finally letting her eyes roam anywhere near Daphne again. She settled for eyeing the girl's nightstand; sitting atop it was a wooden rack holding a dozen odd little vials. Corked, filled to the brim with some kind of substance that was a dark green. There was an empty vial on its lonesome on the nightstand, beside the rack.

"S-so-" Daphne started to speak. She ended in a series of hard coughs. After they subsided, she tried again. "So what do you think of the place?"

Sadie grabbed up her diary again; she couldn't let this girl be able to tell her parents she'd said anything bad about her home! Like Dudley would always tell every single bad thing Sadie ever did...or even if she just glared at him across the playground, or at the park. I love it! It's really pretty! It smells nice!

Daphne grinned as she read the shimmering blue words in the air between them. Her lips trembled a little. "It might not smell too nice tonight."

Why?

Daphne's grin widened. "My fault. Don't worry about it - it'll be pretty common! You'll get used to it after enough times."

Sadie stared, but decided not to ask any more questions about that. She didn't need this girl trying to go to her parents saying Sadie made fun of her by asking if she wet herself or something. It was just what she was thinking! But she wasn't stupid enough to give "voice" to it. Sadie could at least try not to ruin her first day here.

They sat in silence again.

Daphne broke it. Again.

"So what do you like to do for fun? Me, I like to read. I can't do much else, most of the time." She laughed a wispy laugh, and devolved into another coughing fit. But she acted like she hadn't again, so Sadie did too.

I like reading, too. She liked school, and the library. The two places she spent most of her time when not locked up at Number Four. She glanced at her trunk, realizing she had all those new schoolbooks to start going through. The history ones were most important in her mind. To learn about her parents! Well, her dead real parents.

Somehow the two girls got a real dialogue going; Sadie preferred facts, biology and history and science - while Daphne enjoyed thrillers and horrors, and adventures.

Sadie smiled for real, a few times. She relaxed on the bed; she laid herself down on her side, diary splayed in front of her, quill poised for replies. Daphne stayed laying on her backside, only glancing and turning her head sometimes. And Sadie was fine with that. She didn't really expect Daphne to pay too much attention to her - no more than Dudley ever had. She liked it that way, in fact. Less attention meant less hurting.

After a while, Daphne suddenly just told Sadie - in-between coughing fits - that she was going to sleep now. Said it had been nice to meet her, to talk to her, but she had to sleep now.

Sadie nodded quickly and put her diary away on the nightstand. She decided if Daphne was going to sleep, maybe she should too. So she rolled over the other way, putting her back to the girl, and got down into her own blankets.

It was so nice, so soft and warm.

Sadie shut her eyes and smiled to herself unseen.

She thought she might have actually drifted off at some point, but she wasn't too sure.

Either way, Daphne's sudden outburst of pained noises stole her attention in an instant.

Sadie threw off the blankets and sat up quickly, panic and fear in her!

Daphne was thrashing in the bed, bucking and arching, making these growls and hisses through gritted teeth, and her arm was pulsing with a purple glow from within. Then suddenly it just burst, and there were roaring, purple and black flames enveloping her arm, from elbow down! Daphne screamed again and shoved the arm under the blankets, which were now pulsing much more rapidly, making louder noises! But as suddenly as this had all come, Daphne fell flat on the bed again, limp in body and her eyes wide open. Just staring at the ceiling. Then she spasmed, and her limbs shifted under the blankets again, and she was screwing up her eyes and letting out these high whimpers and moaning sounds. She rolled to one side and curled up on herself, her voice getting higher, shriller. LOUDER!

Sadie sat frozen, electricity shooting through her. What was going on, what was she supposed to do, her new sister had just been on fire and Sadie hadn't even-

The door opened, and Marcus was rushing into the room.

He went right to Daphne's bedside, wand drawn. He sat with her, tapped his wand to the blankets - some strange symbols floated up into the air, a stream like a backwards waterfall - and then he tapped again and muttered something in a language Sadie had no idea about. He leaned over his daughter and touched her bare head. "How bad, honey? Another dose, or do you think you can...?" His voice was a whisper. So loving, so gentle, so...

Sadie felt like the worst piece of shit lowlife her aunt and uncle loved to call her, for right then feeling envious of that girl's agony.

"...not as bad as last week." Daphne's shaky, rasping voice came. Hardly even a whisper. Like a ghost. "I can to-tough this one out tonight."

"You're sure?"

"It was just an arm...probably won't be worse than a few limb flares tonight overall..."

"Okay. Okay, honey. But you know if it gets too bad, just call and we'll have you take another. And we'll check in on you every so often..."

"Yeah, I know - thanks, dad. It really wasn't so bad...think I scared the shite out of Sadie though. Did you and- Henry even tell her first?"

Marcus threw a look at Sadie that looked a lot like guilt, and doubt. "We wanted to not worry her with all of that right away; we were going to just...explain to her when it happened. It's a normal thing in this house, and we wanted to approach it that way."

"Better tell her then!" Daphne laughed. Then was immediately letting out a cry, and curling in tighter again on herself. "You should get her a snack or- or something- take her to the sitting room. She doesn't- have to sit here and...watch this on her first day h-here..."

"Right. Okay." Marcus gave his daughter's head a stroke, a kiss, and then he stood and moved for Sadie. "Come on now, Sadie, honey. We'll get you something nice to eat in the kitchen!"

Sadie gratefully grabbed her diary and ran for the door ahead of him.

Down the hall, turned right, a short trip into a wide open, pristine kitchen space. Nice countertops, cabinets, shelves everywhere, and a really nice, long table with six chairs - three on each side.

Marcus pulled out a chair near the end and gave Sadie a look.

She took her seat quickly, putting her hands in her lap. Clutching to her diary.

She tried not to breathe too fast. She tried not to flinch when she heard another scream from down the hall.

"Sadie, honey, so..." Marcus stopped. He looked away, briefly. "I'm sorry. We didn't mean to just..."

"And I said we didn't want to scare you..." Henry spoke from the stove, sounding remorseful as his husband.

"Sadie...you know how we told you that we lost another daughter? Daphne's little sister?" Marcus spoke, in the gentlest of tones.

Sadie gave a shaky nod.

"Yes, well, both girls were born with a...a very volatile- a very- a bad, painful...magical disease. A sickness. It has a very high chance of being fatal, especially in children. More of a chance of being fatal than not, honestly. The younger you are, the...the worse it is, basically. It's supposed to get better as a mage gets older, at least...at least a bit. As their body and magic grows, can better...handle the sickness. But, if you can't survive your earliest years with it, then...well, obviously you won't be able to see it get better later. Because there is no later. That's what happened to Astoria. She...succumbed to it. It...took her. But Daphne fought through it, she made it through, and she's kept fighting on with it. Every day, trying her best. And there are potions, medicines, that can lessen the effects and even get rid of a lot of the pain. Unfortunately, it's a very complicated, very- painful thing to drink on its own. If you drink too much of it, it can cause you a lot more problems than even the disease does. So you have to...do your best to try to...to not. It's a balancing act, really. A terrible balancing act."

Sadie sat there, absorbing all of this information. She felt better for knowing what was going on - but even more awful for Daphne than when she hadn't known what was happening.

"What this...disease does," Marcus continued slowly, very quietly. "as you saw - and I'm sorry you had to like that, honey - it...it's a sort of extreme, intense, cursed flame. It's always burning inside the- the patient. It's terrible enough on its own, enough to make it really hard for someone to even move or sit up in the day. It's a constant pain, and it gets worse with movement, with- use of energy- and use of magic most of all. You know how normal fire feeds on oxygen, getting hotter and bigger? Well, this fire, this disease, it feeds on a person's energy. And sometimes, like when you move too much, use energy too much, it gets so volatile and bad that it just- it flares up. Like you saw. It comes out of the body, and starts to...to not just burn the insides up...but the outsides too. It gets hotter, and bigger. This is why it's so...so awful in your earliest years of life, in children. A baby, they...they flail, they scream, they cry, for hours at a time, just being themselves. And- and that...that is all the energy the flames could ever need to burn...to burn the hottest, and the biggest."

He blew out a breath, stroking his hair. Looking at her in silence. Gauging her reaction? If he should even keep going? He must have decided it was safe to, because he did.

"Believe it or not, it is getting easier for Daphne. It's easier for her now than it was at eight, at six, at four...at two. And the blanket she has, with the black glow to it? That noise you heard? That's a special, recent invention by St. Mungo's that helps to- to make it even easier for her to handle. It's hard to explain, but it...whenever the flames start feeding on too much energy, start to flare up outside the body, the magic in the blanket will push back and wrap around Daphne, and sort of...stamp down on her energy levels, and her magic too. It's like a...like dampening, smothering. Like you put dirt on a normal fire, or water when a house is burning? Do you understand this, Sadie?"

Sadie thought about it a bit, and nodded. She got that part, all right.

"Yes, well, the blanket works the same way as that: it smothers the fires outside the body, forcing them to go down and stay inside her. To not be so hot, so big anymore. She goes everywhere with that blanket draped over her. Whether she's in bed, or in her hoverchair, or anywhere else. It's been even more helpful for her than the potions - even if it does leave her exhausted afterward. In fact, if it hadn't been invented, if she hadn't been able to use it...she likely would not have made it this far at all. It was a real breakthrough for- treating children with her disease. The survival rate has gone up significantly. But they only came up with it when she was six years old."

Sadie blinked. When she was six...? She lost her sister when she was four. If they'd made the thing two years sooner...maybe her little sister would've had a better chance, too.

Marcus's face was anguished, his eyes meeting hers, like he knew what she was thinking. Like he'd thought it too, a million times over already.

"I still don't know how she ever keeps such a good spirit about it," he said, laughing. "She never wants us to treat her different, or not talk to her because her talking would feed the flames even more, causing her pain in turn from flare ups. She's insisted on taking it, on just keeping on no matter what. She'll expect the same from you, Sadie; so if you're ever going to think you feel maybe guilty over her condition in there, because you were getting along with her...please don't. We'd never want you to, and she wouldn't either - most importantly, she wouldn't. Okay, Sadie?"

Sadie nodded, her throat tight. She thought it was too late for that, but...if they wanted her to try not to...anyways...if Daphne herself wanted her to try not to feel so...then she had to do her best. Like Daphne did her best.


	5. The First Day

Sadie woke up to some real confusion.

She was in a nice bed, a wide open space, and...

 _Oh_. It was all real. Really real!

Sadie sat up, clutching to the blankets and smiling.

She yawned and rubbed at her emerald eye. Absently, she made to remove the eyepatch and give her _other_ eye a good rubbing in...

She froze when she saw two blue eyes staring at her, across from her.

Daphne was looking at her face, at her scar, at her eyepatch that was on verge of being pulled up.

"Good morning!" she croaked happily, flashing a smile of her own.

 _Wait, that's really it from her?_ Sadie stared at her new sister. She turned her head away from Daphne to scrub her evil eye to death before putting the eyepatch back over it, right and snug.

"How'd you sleep? Was it good?"

Sadie breathed. She slid her legs out and sat on the side of her bed. She gave Daphne a warm nod.

"That's good." Daphne eyed her a moment. "If you get dressed and bathed, you can go to the kitchen and get some breakfast - Henry's usually got that ready for us pretty early on. He loves doing it before he gets to work."

Sadie's eyebrow furrowed with her confusion. _Us_?

Daphne must have seen it. "The family."

Sadie gave another nod, a pleasant sensation squirming in her stomach.

"You go on and do that, anyways - I'll be along soon, too." Daphne cracked another of those grins that just...changed her whole face. In a really great way, Sadie reflected. "It takes me a bit longer than most girls to do the simple things."

Sadie nodded; she hopped off the bed and turned around to start making it up again. Nice, smooth, as perfectly perfect as she could. She went to pull one of her old outfits from her trunk. When she'd bundled it all up in her arms, she noticed Daphne was staring at her again. Sadie waited, breath bated. Anxiety bloomed. This was it, wasn't it? Her new sister was going to make fun of her for having such ratty clothes! She was going to call her out for it, insult her, she was going to-

"Let our parents see you that way - that's good - they'll want to take you shopping as soon as possible. Let Marcus take you if you want to be in and out in five minutes, let Henry do it if you want to waste three hours." Daphne's tone was light, and nothing but amused.

Sadie gave a stilted, amazed nod of her head, and then she hesitantly wandered out of the bedroom. Into the long, narrow hallway.

She found the door to the bathroom from last night - Marcus had directed her to it after dinner - and took herself a shower.

In and out, just a couple minutes. Fast, furious scrubbing, and quick work on her hair.

She dressed and made her way through the house to the kitchen.

Familiar smells met her nose long before even entering.

Henry spotted her immediately, and he gave her a beaming look. He looked different without makeup - but he looked really nice in the purple gown, with lace sleeves and hem. "Hey! Good morning, Sadie. Is Daphne up yet, too?"

Sadie gave a nod and a smile, shuffling where she'd stopped in her tracks.

"Great, great. Why don't you sit down - I'll have a plate made up for you quick enough. I know you didn't get to eat much before."

Sadie obeyed, wincing inside at the mention of her relatives. But that was over, they were over - they were _done for_. She was here now. She'd stay here now. She let a breath go, fighting not to sink down in the chair.

It was a good fifteen minutes before Sadie saw Daphne come drifting into the kitchen on a floating chair. It was cushioned and had high sides. There was a little shelf attached to the left arm, a hanging rack full of similar potion vials as the one on her nightstand (one of the vials was already empty). Daphne's whole body was covered up in the special medical blanket. The bottom of it was hanging even past her feet, loosely in the air.

Daphne came right over to the table, right next to Sadie. Her hoverchair automatically adjusted itself to the table's height, and she pulled an arm free of the blanket and slowly dug into her waiting plate. Her hand trembled every time she brought it to her mouth. But she was smiling and humming, even so. Even through the few times she coughed, or winced in obvious pain. Horrible, awful pain Sadie couldn't even imagine. It was so awful and horrifying to look at this girl and know she was hurting inside. _Burning_ inside. By literal, dark magical flames! How could she stand that? How could anyone? How was she always just so...so...? Sadie didn't think she ever could have done it, herself.

Marcus joined them in short order, sitting down with Daphne. Henry sat next to Sadie with food of his own.

And...like that...Sadie realized that happy, wonderful scene of a family together at the table - something always seen but never had for herself - it _was_ something she had now. Right now.

"Sadie, I go to work every morning at six - I work at the Ministry." Henry pointed to a clock on the wall; it was about half an hour till the time he had to leave. "I come home at two in the afternoon. Marcus stays here at home; he keeps it clean and tidy, looks after the family in just about every way. So if there's something you need, just ask him."

"I can see one thing she already needs," Marcus spoke casually, a deliberate glance at Sadie. At her t-shirt. "Don't worry, honey - I'll take you out later today, and we'll get it sorted out."

Henry pulled a deep frown at his husband. "Could you wait to do that until after I've come home?"

"Oh, sweetie..." Marcus shook his head, smiling. "We don't want her thinking that's normally how long a shopping trip takes!"

"She'll be needing _plenty_ of outfits, I'm sure. And we could spend more time together that way."

"Okay. Well," Marcus went on, eyeing Daphne. "Could we make it a whole family trip, or would you like to stay home? I'd stay with you. It could just be the two of them going out for this."

Daphne gave Sadie a shaky grin. "I want to go, too. I can help her pick stuff out, too, you know! First shopping trip with my sister!"

Sadie gave a smile back, startled but pleased.

"It's settled, then. Family outing at...let's say three o'clock." Henry said excitedly.

"Three," Marcus confirmed, his eyes glistening with amusement.

The family - _Sadie's family_ \- continued eating.

Henry stood after his plate was cleared (and another look at the clock). He put his dish in the sink and wandered back to Marcus. He put his arms around him and leaned over the back of his chair, giving him a firm kiss. "I'll be getting ready - it's about time to go."

"Okay, sweetie. You know where I'll be - right here with the girls. I'll see you after work!"

"Right. I love you."

"Love you too."

"Daphne - I love you." Henry moved to his daughter, kissing the top of her head very carefully.

"See you, dad," Daphne replied, half raising a trembling hand - and immediately setting it down again on the table.

Henry looked at Sadie, smiling widely at her. "I love you too, Sadie." He came to her and slowly, carefully pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Sadie went rigid, staring. Her hands twisted in her lap, and her vision was going all blurry. She hitched a breath through a tightening throat. She flipped open her diary and scrambled with her quill. The letters formed in the air.

Henry left the kitchen. Just like that, just after _that_.

It was Daphne who moved first. A shaking arm crossed the space and landed on Sadie's. Fingers quivered as they curled, squeezing very weakly.

Sadie just started crying even _more_.

"Oh god - dad - I think I broke her!"

"Daphne..." Marcus's voice held admonishment, and warning. But he was up and moving for Sadie now, all the same. He got down next to her, meeting her at eye level. "Sadie, honey, are you okay? Was- was that okay? If it's too much for you just yet, if it's too-"

Sadie shook her head frantically as she hugged herself, bending over the table. Her tears spilled onto her diary's open pages. They immediately vanished, absorbed and gone.

Suddenly Marcus was hugging her - holding her, stroking her hair, whispering things to her she'd never heard before. Not at _her_!

Sadie cried until she just couldn't, and she was slack in those arms.

"Well that was impressive."

"Daphne!"

"Sorry!"

"Sadie, are you okay now, honey?"

Sadie pulled away and nodded. She didn't want to keep making things so awkward now - uncomfortable! And she really didn't want them to see her like this for too much longer. It was bad enough already.

Marcus let her go and stood. He gave her hair another stroke, a caress, gazing at her so...

Sadie turned her head and found herself locking eyes with Daphne.

"Want to go have fun outside?" Daphne asked, exuberant. Grinning at her broadly.

Sadie looked to Marcus.

"Feel free, girls!" he said with a smile. "Just- Daphne-"

"Don't overdo it - yeah, yeah. Dad, I'll be fine."

"You say that now, honey, but every single time you end up screaming later..." Marcus sighed, fluttering his eyes that were starting to shimmer. "Please, really, honey: Don't."

"No promises."

"Daphne! Yes, promises. Promise, or you're not going out there. If you push yourself too far, far enough that you end up needing to be brought to St. Mungo's again...I swear to god, honey - you're not almost killing yourself again, new sister or not! Just because you have one again doesn't mean you can start throwing your own health to the wind!" It wasn't shouting, wasn't yelling, like Sadie's aunt and uncle did to her. It was so strange that way; it was just...it was intense, desperate, it was soft, it was _quiet_! Quieter than normal! It was the opposite of anything Sadie knew.

"What's the point of having a sister if I can't even have fun with her like any other pair of sisters do?!" Daphne, on the other hand, didn't really seem to have any issues with raising her voice. Even if it sounded hoarse, and cracked in the middle.

"Because _other_ sisters don't kill themselves trying to have fun!"

"I haven't been outside in weeks!"

"Because you _almost killed yourself_ weeks ago! I'm not really eager to see you do it again, honey! You want to go outside with Sadie now, but you also want to go on that Diagon Alley trip later; that's pushing yourself way too far, it's...Daphne, if you aren't _careful_ , and _restrained_...to try two major outings in one day like that..."

Daphne growled, whirling her chair around and zipping off across the kitchen floor.

"Daphne. Please. Please just say it for me...please...no overexerting yourself."

Daphne slowed, and halted entirely in the kitchen doorway. A rattling sigh filled the room. "F-fine. Promise. No overexerting myself. Can I go have fun with my sister now?"

"Yes..." Marcus sighed, too. "Okay, Sadie - go on. Go with her. But make sure you two aren't out there for too long. An hour, tops."

Sadie nodded and stood up with her diary in hand. She followed Daphne out - the girl was already moving down the hall at a speedy, floaty pace.

This family was so, so wildly different and opposite to anything she'd seen before - and she loved it for that.

The girls moved out the front door, out into the grass. The hot summer air.

Sadie breathed easier, smiling, basking in the sun's wonderful warmth.

"Ok, let's have some fun! Come on!"

Sadie followed Daphne a bit nervously around the side of the house. After all, Dudley's idea of "fun" whenever he used the word towards _her_ usually involved a lot of name-calling and, when he could get her away from prying eyes, even some hitting and shoving. He'd taken cues from his parents that way.

Daphne stopped near the pond, rotating to face Sadie with a quick little spin and a laugh.

"Ok, Sadie - see those bottles there? Bring me the empty one, and you keep the full one. Pick it up and open it! We'll play a quick match of fairy catching. They're not _real_ fairies, obviously - that'd be kidnapping and slavery, which is gross stuff - and it's a pretty simple game: just let them fly around, and try to grab as many as you can. Whoever has the most at the end wins."

As Sadie obeyed her new sister (having to set her diary down in the grass for it), she eyed the hovering chair with a question in her mind: how fast could it go? Would Daphne be upset if she lost to Sadie? Would she decide it wasn't fun if she couldn't beat Sadie? Should Sadie let her win (not that Sadie had any real confidence in herself to win anyways)? Sadie had never played any kind of fun game with another kid before! Well, fun for _her_. Sadie was was stuck in her own anxiety, mired in hesitation.

Daphne snapped her out of it with a snap of her fingers. She was looking at her, excited but also impatient. "Go on, let 'em free! How about on the count of three? One...two...three!"

Sadie twisted the lid on her bottle, and the fake fairies escaped in a rush of wings!

Daphne immediately was moving, and fast. She'd taken both her arms out from under the blankets, and was making furious attempts at catching the fluttering little things. Laughing and crying out with triumph or disappointment, at failure or success.

Sadie watched her before remembering she was an actual participant in the game too; she wildly looked around for any nearby fairies, and took off towards a group of them near the ground. She stooped and swiped, missing horribly. They flew around her and went up high. But not too high; she could still get them if she stretched herself out.

Sadie tried to catch them, but she failed again miserably; she was relieved about that - it wasn't going to be too hard to _really_ lose. Rather, to _let Daphne win_. And Sadie did lose, and lose soundly, in the end. She knew she'd made the right choice when Daphne became just _over the moon_ about it.

"YES! THAT WAS GREAT!" Daphne pumped her fist in the air and came over to Sadie. She took her bottle from her and then gave them both a casual toss into the grass. Frail hands grabbed at Sadie's shoulders, a grinning face was pushed into hers. "What should we do next? What about the pond? We could swim? Well, you swim, I float... Can you swim at all?"

Sadie looked between Daphne and the crystal clean water, the perfectly smooth rock bed at the bottom. She shook her head quickly.

"Oh...well that's okay! Why don't I teach you? Or you could just float with me."

Sadie shook her head again. A very real part of her was wondering if this girl was just trying to get a chance to drown her. The other part was loudly expressing that _she had no clue how to swim_ , so either way she'd drown anyways!

Daphne's face slowly became less and less happy with her, though, so when the girl asked again if they could just get in and stay to the side - hug the edge - Sadie finally gave her a timid nod.

"This is just so- so great!" Daphne kicked off her blanket entirely, and then had just suddenly yanked her shirt off! The rest of her clothes followed after. Her hoverchair settled in the grass, right on water's edge, and then she just sort of slid down out of it, right into the water. She braced herself with one arm over the side, gazing up at Sadie with the biggest grin ever. "Come on! It's magic water; never too hot, never too cold, never gross, and it even has a bit of healing properties - that makes it perfect for me, and better for you!"

 _So it helps her?_ Sadie was less reluctant now. Her face was perfectly blank as she followed Daphne's lead in shedding her clothes and dipped her toes in the water - literally. She sat down, letting the water rise to her knees. Daphne patted her leg and smiled at her. Sadie drew a breath and just went for it, like Daphne herself had done. She fell, submerged! She was sucking in a breath and grabbing, feeling the stone- up- there was the edge, the dirt, grass! She pulled herself up above water's surface, gasping and coughing and clutching for dear life with both arms.

"Are you sure you've never done this before?" Daphne asked. "I know most muggleborns - or, muggle-raised, for you, I guess - are a lot more weird about going clothes free. Even for swimming! No offense, but they're _really_ behind the times on a lot of stuff like that - we don't really go into the muggle world too often; they've had some really stupid reactions to us before...especially to Henry..."

Sadie just shrugged, trying to even out her breathing again - and get the water out of her nose! She told herself this wasn't really swimming, this was just- like a really big bath. It wasn't a big deal. It was just a big bathtub. After she'd calmed down and rid herself of water, she actually did start to relax. To enjoy that faint warmth, the scent of the flowers on the wind, and the way her aching body was just...not aching anymore.

Daphne turned herself around, facing inward in the pond, putting her hands behind her head. She dipped her head back and closed her eyes, taking in the sun.

Sadie tried to imitate her, but as soon as she'd let one hand go, she felt a rush of fear, and changed her mind. Clinging to the side was fine, she could just keep doing this. Hopefully, Daphne wouldn't mind. And, _thankfully_ , after a couple of minutes passed the two by like this, it seemed clear to Sadie that her new sister really didn't.

"Sadie...?"

Sadie turned to find her new sister staring at her - AGAIN! But this time, she was frowning instead of smiling or grinning.

Daphne's lips moved, wordless a moment - then she just shook her head. "Never mind. Your diary is still sitting all the way over there; you couldn't answer me on this one with yesses and nos."

Sadie gazed over the grass, thinking this was the perfect excuse to get out of the water already and get dressed again. But her sister already looked upset for some reason, and she didn't want to make that _worse_. So she stayed where she was, just gave a noncommittal nod, hoping Daphne would take it as a positive in whatever way she liked (that was often the best policy of living peacefully back at Privet Drive).

Daphne sighed and slumped down into the waters up to her neck. She had let go entirely of the side! She was just... _not drowning_. Her feet moving far below, her arms swaying only a little. She made it look so easy, Sadie thought!

Sadie breathed relief at avoiding her new sister's anger, even as she marveled at her swimming.

In what seemed like no time at all, Marcus had stuck his head out the window on the side of the house and was calling for them to come back inside.

Sadie mercifully obeyed, hauling herself out and dressing fast. She retrieved her diary, shook her head and wrung out her hair as best she could. She stopped, then, and turned to watch Daphne emerge from the water. Much more slowly, with a lot of winces and gasps - but Daphne didn't _say_ a word, she didn't ask for any kind of help - so Sadie felt safe enough to let her be. Surely she knew herself better than Sadie ever could!

"You never took that thing off." Daphne's unexpected comment came after she'd dressed herself and settled back into her chair again (pulled that blanket up over herself once more). Her hand came up, shaking very visibly, and a finger pointed at Sadie's face.

Sadie touched her eyepatch, tilting her head. _Of course I didn't take it off._

"You didn't even take it off for bed last night, did you?" Daphne spoke on, more to herself than to Sadie. She cocked her head in imitation of Sadie, and cocked a grin to go with. "Did you wear it in the shower this morning, too?"

Sadie nodded, unsure where Daphne was even going with this line of questioning. What was she going to _do_ at the end of it, with whatever she learned? Tease her, spread the word to others?

"Does it hurt?"

Sadie shook her head.

Daphne's grin softened. "That's good. Would you ever show me what's behind that thing?"

Sadie gave a shrug.

"Ok. Let's get back in the house; dad is probably getting antsy about us."

Sadie followed Daphne's lead again.

* * *

"Ready to go, Sadie?"

Sadie nodded at Henry. She smiled her best smile.

After a couple of nice hours spent reading and chatting and playing more magical games with Daphne - and sometimes even Marcus - it was finally time to go to Diagon Alley. Henry had gotten home in good spirits, giving everyone a hug - including Sadie! She'd basked in it, tried not to cry again over it.

And now it was time, and Sadie told herself she had to control herself!

This was a public outing - and any time the Dursleys took her on those, she'd learned from earliest childhood that her best behavior had _better_ _be_...or else.

So even though Sadie was very _nervous_ about walking into a large fireplace of green flames, she knew she just had to go for it. She couldn't make a scene, she couldn't hesitate!

And Marcus and Daphne had already gone through it okay - at least, Sadie had to _HOPE_ they were really okay on the other side.

She squeezed Henry's hand and let him walk her forward. Right into the fire!

"Diagon Alley," he spoke clearly.

The world spun and spun, and Sadie clutched harder to her dad's hand-

And then it was over. Thank god it was over!

Sadie was spilling forward, tripping over her own feet-

Henry caught her swiftly. Righted her. He smiled down at her. "Are you okay?"

Sadie nodded instantly, straightening her back to its fullest. She let his hand go and clasped her diary to her waist. She was flinching a half second later, as Daphne clapped a hand to her shoulder. "You made it through alright, see! It was so fun, right?!" She gave her sister a quick nod and a flash of a smile. Marcus had a pleased look on his face as he observed the two girls.

"You the last two from the Greengrass residence?" asked the witch standing near the door of the barren room. There was a floating tin and a thick parchment in front of her.

"Yes," Henry replied simply. He glanced at Marcus. "You already-"

"Already payed, sweetie, yes!" Marcus interrupted, with a high laugh. "For the return trip later, too."

"Alright. Come on now, girls - we're holding up the line, I'm sure."

Sadie tried to keep a good balance between too fast and too slow, and too close and too far behind as they left the front entrance of the Floo building.

Out in the familiar, wonderful alley again, Sadie relaxed at least a little. She let herself smile a bit. But she didn't get so distracted and overexcited like last time, with Hagrid. Definitely not!

If her parents snapped at her, if they called it off and took her home, decided she wasn't worth the effort to get new clothes for after all...

Her parents took her along down the alley, seeming to know right where to go; they all moved inside a brightly colored shop with a big window display, full of different outfits and moving mannequins, that bowed and twirled and paced back and forth to swish the hems of dresses, skirts, and robes all rather nicely.

A teller noticed their entry immediately. And, more specifically, noted Sadie's. "Oh my- Sadie Potter? In _my_ shop? Why, I'm so honored, girl!" The old witch was coming around the counter, bustling forward, right for Sadie. Thank you, thank you, for-"

"Our daughter's here for some clothes - not to be hassled," Henry said firmly, stepping forward - and putting himself between the teller and Sadie.

"Y-yes, of course, I- so sorry..." The witch was flustered, flushed. She bowed and backpedaled swiftly. "W-well, ahem, do you- need any assistance in here this fine evening in- finding her the right outfits?"

Henry cocked a grin that looked, to Sadie's eyes, shockingly like Daphne's. A manicured hand was flourished down his own figure. "What do you think, ma'am?"

The witch's embarrassed look intensified. "Y-yes...you seem to have quite the good sensibilities of fashion already to you. I'll just be- waiting at the register for you."

"You do that." Henry looked to Sadie with that grin still there. "Sadie, come on this way - the tunics and pants are down this aisle here. That is, if you want any more of those..."

Sadie hurried after him. Both her parents questioned her, prompted her, pointing to this or that bit of clothing - did she like the color, the texture, the shape? It was honestly a lot more attention than Sadie could handle; she was _used_ to the Dursleys never giving her a second look in a public place. But these two...they were so- so- _attentive_! To her! She was so nervous and uncomfortable she just started choosing things at random, agreeing with her family (Daphne even made some suggestions, saying she thought Sadie would look nice in this top, or that pair of pants). In the end, Sadie left that shop with more clothes than she'd ever had in her life - she had _tried_ to stop after three full outfits, but her parents had kept prompting her on! They'd _wanted her_ to buy a lot more. So she had gone along with it for them.

Stepping outside the shop, starting down the Alley, Sadie was smiling as she walked alongside her family. She felt so relieved the whole thing was over!

Her relief vanished with a literal, sudden flash of light further ahead.

A small group of mages with enchanted quills and parchment, and big cameras, came hurrying up to the family. Those cameras were flashing rapidly, long before Sadie and her family even got close enough to talk to them.

"Sadie Potter! The magical world would love to know how you've been coping since your-"

"Miss Potter, are you enjoying being with the Greengrass family?"

"Could we get some photos of the two girls together in front of-"

Sadie retreated, mentally and physically. At the same time, her parents moved in front of her as one.

"We're just trying to get home - no questions, no posing for your front page scoop," Henry said loudly.

"We'd really appreciate it if you could give our daughter the space she needs here," Marcus added, firm and clear.

"Only her first real day with you and you already think of her that way? Does _she_ think of _you_ that way? Sadie, could you give us _your_ thoughts on your new family?"

"Is it hard being in a home with a severely crippled girl like that? Are your parents giving you enough attention next to her?"

"Okay, fuck off!" Daphne zoomed forward, chin raised, face twisted. "My sister doesn't want to answer a _damn thing_ to any of you people, and if you want to drag me into it and make me into a problem for her, then _we've_ got a problem you stupid fucking-"

"Alright, Daphne - ENOUGH. Just go - around. NOW." Henry cut across. "Sadie, take my hand - we're going."

Sadie listened; the family moved together, getting inside the Floo building with flashing light behind them and a cacophony of voices.

Into an empty room, through the fireplace.

The world spun, and they were back home again.

Quiet, familiar, wonderful...

"That was annoying," Daphne snorted, her eyes on Sadie. "You okay there, sis?"

Sadie nodded and smiled (maybe a bit shaky).

"Daphne," Henry spoke up.

"Yeah, dad?"

He smiled. "I'm proud of you for that back there."

"Thanks!"

"But I don't want to hear you use that kind of language again."

"Unless we run into more arsehole reporters again, right? If they jump on Sadie again like that, I'm going to go nuts!"

"Only if that happens again," Henry agreed, trying to keep his smile from growing any bigger.

"And we're proud of you, too, Sadie," Marcus began. "for holding yourself together so well - in the shop. We know it was uncomfortable for you. We could tell. And we're sorry you were. But, hopefully, with a few more trips, it'll be less so, honey."

Sadie glowed.

* * *

The whole family was together in the girls' bedroom, lights on to combat the dark of night.

"You don't have to be here for this, Sadie. It's- going to be a bad one - hahahaha...oh, it's going to be bad!"

Sadie walked to Daphne's bedside, and got down on her knees. She stared into Daphne's eyes, and put on her best smile.

Daphne huffed an airless laugh, and she grinned. "Well okay. If you think you can take it!"

 _I'm just watching. It should be a million times easier for me to stay here like this, compared to your actually going through it. And if I can just do even this much for you... You're my sister now; I should be doing something for you. That's how real sisters, how real_ FAMILIES _work! I see it with you and your- our- parents, and...I have to be a part of that, too. Because I'm a part of this family too now. And they were... and you were there for me earlier, in the Alley. My cousin_ NEVER _did that for me - nothing like it!_

So Sadie did her best to stay right there, right with her through it all.

It got worse and worse, until Daphne was screaming, but a hundred times worse than last night! She was sobbing and begging Marcus, asking him to grab one of the potion vials and feed it to her. It took him two tries to put it to her lips - she was just thrashing so much.

"God, it was worth it!" Daphne was half laughing, half sobbing. She was almost hysterical, or maybe insane. She tried to grin, but it twisted into an agonized expression as she threw herself to one side and curled up again. She was sweating, and the sweat was hissing and evaporating on her very face! This caused Sadie to have a horrifying thought: did the cursed flames ever burn from her _head_? "Worth it, today- you- was all worth it! I loved- being out with you there! I LOVED IT, Sadie! Thank you! I had SO MUCH F-FUN! Even if I end up going to St. Mungo's tonight - all of today was worth it!"

 _She's thanking me for putting her in the worst pain I can't even imagine. How can she really think this is worth it? It was never worth anything I did at Number Four to get struck in the face, or...how can she think_ this _is worth-_ ANYTHING _?_

"Daphne, you're being really counterproductive right now - please, just lay back and try to relax," Henry told her firmly, a hand on her shoulder through the blanket. "Try not to talk so much."

"Sure! J-just had to- get it out!"

Henry held Daphne down on the bed as she tried to arch and twist again. "You can get any words you want out _later_ \- when you're fine again!"

"Please, honey, just listen to us this time!" Marcus pleaded from the other side - he had Daphne's other arm held tight. "You haven't been this bad in so long, I don't want to see this get any worse..."

Daphne screwed her face up and tossed her head back onto the pillows. "Sure, sure - b-but just this one time! I don't want to-"

"Daphne! Still a minute before your potion kicks in."

The girl clamped her jaws shut and let out a lengthy hiss, her teeth grinding horribly.

It wasn't long before they flew open again, letting loose more screams that just couldn't be contained.

Sadie snaked her hand into the mix, placing it right over Daphne's arm atop the blanket.

* * *

Sirius Black heard footfalls on stone, and he changed back from his dog form immediately.

He lay back on the tiny frame of a bed in his cell, hands behind his head. A grin even came over his features.

He was always better - at his _best_ \- just after a change.

If he didn't have Padfoot...he'd have been insane a long time ago.

Sirius saw the bright light of a Patronus, and then came the caster.

The man stopped outside his cell, right outside. Looked in on him with distaste, and with fear. A slightly shaking hand readjusted a bowler hat.

"Black. Enjoying the memories of murdering your own best friends?"

Sirius laughed at the Minister for Magic, his grin widening. His eyes scanned the man up and down, and he spotted the newspaper in his hand. "Mind if I read that? It's hard to keep up with the times in here - not that you'd know, Minister..."

Fudge gave him a best approximation of a glare, and took a step forward. He folded the paper up and then shoved it through the bars quickly. He eyed Sirius a moment, and then he smiled. "I was just thinking about giving this one to you, anyways, Black. After killing Lily and James, after nearly causing the murder of their infant daughter - your own _goddaughter_ \- well, after so many years now...I want to see your face when you realize just how safe, and happy that girl is these days. That despite everything you ever tried to do, everything you _did_ do, she's flourishing now."

Sirius's mind and tattered memories stirred. Much more easily, they came to him, than any other time - had he not just been Padfoot. _Lily and James. My goddaughter...Sadie..._ He flung himself out of the bed and snatched up the Prophet edition. He didn't have to look further than the front page to see what Fudge was referring to.

Right there, in big bold letters, was the title: **Girl-Who-Lived Alive And Well!**

Sirius gazed at the picture below those words.

It was a young girl with an eyepatch, with dark red hair and a single green eye visible. She was walking quite happily beside two fashionable wizards down Diagon Alley, and there was another girl in one of those hovering chairs he'd seen in St. Mungo's a long time ago. And he thought, in his memories, he remembered a classmate of his using the same thing, from time to time?

Sirius tore his gaze away from the picture with all his strength, sliding his eyes down to the article proper.

He read it over quickly, tears welling in his eyes. His lips trembling.

He gripped the Prophet so tight he punctured it with his dirty, long nails.

Sadie had gone through an awful life with her aunt and uncle - but that was _fixed_ now! She'd been taken out of that filthy home, put into another. A better one! She looked so happy, so carefree, so...

But just because one problem was fixed, didn't mean others weren't, Sirius realized with horror. The very Prophet in his hands that had given him this very _public_ knowledge about his goddaughter's whereabouts...the same source could be of use to Peter! Peter, who had tricked Sirius, framed him, killed all those people...fled as a rat...

Peter could...he could...he probably already _had_ seen this article, and- and-

And he'd know exactly where to find Sadie now, and there wouldn't be any way for anyone to even realize she was in danger. Not from a random rat that could crawl into her room, or...

"See here, man - are you really _that_ upset over a little girl's happiness?" Fudge's voice tore him out of these frantic thoughts. "I'd thought you were a cruel man before, but this...you're in tears over the poor girl _not_ suffering anymore?"

Sirius whipped his head up, tossing the article away and slamming himself against the bars. Grasping at them with all his strength. Staring at Fudge, willing his mind to work, his mouth to move. "Minister Fudge, listen to me: Sadie is in danger! There's an animagus- a rat- a spy for Voldemort who got free- he's going to- he'll _know_ where she is now, and he'll try to kill her! He'll kill this whole...good...family that she has now with her. You have to warn them, warn her, you have to look out for him!"

"An animagus agent of Voldemort?" Fudge eyed him shrewdly. "Still free? After Sadie?"

"Y-yes, yes, and you have to protect her, you have to warn her!"

"Are you trying to win your freedom by selling out this agent? You missed your chance at your trial at the end of that damnable war, Black!"

"WHAT TRIAL?" Sirius shrieked his mirth, sudden and bursting. "What _trial_ , Fudge? I was thrown in here immediately after the DMLE took me off the street!"

Fudge stared at him. He shook his head and backed away. "Dumbledore himself testified, on behalf of Lily and James themselves, that you undeniably had to be the betrayer of those two - of Sadie Potter. There wasn't any _need_ for a trial with you. You were guilty as clear as day."

"I wasn't!" Sirius shouted the words he'd wanted _anyone_ to hear, for years and years. But he'd never gotten a single visit until today. "It was the rat- it was _him_ , he fooled everyone, he set me up, he-"

Fudge's gaze hardened. "Enough of this nonsense! A dozen eye witnesses saw you do that spell, they found you there, and everyone else dead! I WAS ON THE SCENE AFTER, I SAW IT ALL! AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO- TO TRY TO TELL ME IT WAS A _SET UP_?"

Sirius sagged where he was, hanging onto the bars for support. He didn't believe him; he wasn't _going_ to believe him. Sirius would just sound _even more_ insane and uncredible if he gave the name of the rat of a man he was supposed to have killed, that everyone _believed_ he'd killed.

Fudge's hard gaze continued to bore into him. Angry, swollen face. "I'll be on my way now. I was here to inspect the prisoners. You're not the only one in here, Black. Or do you think you're special enough to take up all my time?"

Sirius just nodded, defeated. "Yes, right - must just be my animal magnetism. Sorry, Minister."

Fudge's footsteps began again, and grew quieter and quieter.

Sirius pulled himself up, looking up and down the corridor. Empty, quiet. The Dementors would be clear of this area due to the Patronus, due to Fudge being around. At least for a few minutes, for his visit.

And that meant...

He transformed again into Padfoot, and he squeezed his way through the bars with all his might and determination.

Sirius bounded down the corridor, panting heavily.

The Ministry wasn't going to do a thing! Fudge probably wouldn't even tell anyone his warning! That was fine - Sirius would do something himself. And they didn't _know_ Peter like he did! Nowhere near. He knew all his tricks, his habits, he knew...he _knew_! From the street, he knew...the Ministry wouldn't have taken it seriously anyways, even if he had gotten the words out of his tattered mind. They only had the nervous wreck of a boy's image in their heads! But Sirius _knew_! And that made him the best one to protect Sadie from him.

Sirius wasn't going to fail that girl again. Fail James' memory again, and the honor and duty he'd bestowed on Sirius all those years ago when he'd named him as Godfather.


End file.
